City Of Aurora Approves Resolution To Make Juneteenth Paid Holiday For City Staff

AURORA, Ill. (CBS) -- The Aurora City Council voted Tuesday to make Juneteenth a paid holiday for city staff.

The resolution was signed by Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin Tuesday evening. It makes June 19 a paid city holiday beginning this year.

Non-emergency city offices will be closed on June 19 if it falls on a weekday. The holiday will move to Friday if June 19 falls on a Saturday, or Monday if June 19 falls on a Sunday.

Mayor Irvin announced the proposal last summer at Aurora's 20th annual Juneteenth celebration last year. It was placed on the City Council agenda to be voted upon during Black History Month.

"It's not lost on me the doors that were opened before I got here to be the first African American mayor of the City of Aurora in 180 years," Irvin said as he signed the resolution. "It's not lost on me what all of us do now to continue to open the doors and pave the path for young people to follow."

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War had ended and slavery had been abolished, freeing the last of enslaved African Americans still being held in the Confederacy. It was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.